1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conference aiding system for realizing an electronic conference and improving an efficiency to perform the conference, and more particularly to a conference aiding system for easily relating an object to a file on a display screen for use in the conference.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An electronic conference aiding system has been developed which uses a work station or personal computer to electronically create, display, instruct and move information items, which are opinions of attendants of a conference. The system to causes opinions of the attendants to smoothly communicated and proceedings of the conference to be satisfactorily stored in order to improve the quality of the conference. A conference aiding system of the foregoing type usually has a. structure in which one common information processing apparatus comprises a monitor having a large size and arranged to display information of attendants, i.e. large size information for use in place of a blackboard. A monitor control unit for controls the monitor to cause the monitor to display various information items and input means shared by the attendants and plurality of personal information processing apparatuses are used in the conference aiding system. Each comprises a personal computer, a monitor having a small size to display various information items, and input means provided for the respective attendants to input information. The personal information apparatuses are connected to one another through a serial synchronized communication line, such as a LAN. To aid the conference, which is a coordinated operation, the shared input means or the individual input means are used to enable each attendant to arbitrarily create, instruct and move information.
If a file started up by an arbitrary application having a function (for example, OLE: Object Linking and Embedding, Microsoft, U.S.) of embedding an object (a unit for controlling information with a unified attribute and operating information) can be displayed on the large monitor in the above conference aiding system, a tentative file is displayed on the large monitor to request comments from the attendants in such a manner that the comments from the attendants can be embedded at arbitrary relevant positions of the file and displayed on the monitor. Specifically, attendants required to make comments use a shared input means of the common information processing apparatus or the individual input means of the personal information processing apparatus to create objects (opinions of the attendant and/or relevant information). If the object is created by the personal information processing apparatus, the attendant sends the created object to the common information processing apparatus. Then, the attendant embeds the object at an arbitrary position of the file on the large monitor so that the object is displayed on the monitor.
If each attendant displays a file, to which a reference is required to be made, on the small monitor adjacent to the attendant, the attendant creates an object (a memorandum or reference material) relating to the file. Then, if the attendant determines that the object relates to the file, the created object can be embedded at an arbitrary position of the file so as to be displayed on the small monitor in a case where the starting application of the file has the function of making arbitrary information to be relevant to the object and embedding it in the file.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are schematic views showing examples of display of an embedded object in the file. Although an object m and a file A are initially displayed in such a manner that they are not related to each other (see FIG. 1A), selection of an embedding process causes display to be performed in such a manner that the object m is embedded at an arbitrary position in the file A (see FIG. 1B). In this case, the object m is inserted into an arbitrary position in the file A.
When a comment or a reference material relating to the file displayed on the large common monitor is, by the attendant, made to be relevant as an object and embedded so as to be displayed, the above-mentioned conventional conference aiding system is structured to determine information items in the file between which the object is embedded. Then, the object is inserted into the determined position. However, the above-mentioned method of making the object to be relevant to the file has the following problem.
Since the object is inserted between information items in the file, the position of information of the file, which has been displayed, will considerably be shifted. Therefore, an object, which does not considerably related to the file, and an object (for example, an opinion about the file), the position of which to be embedded cannot precisely be specified, cannot easily be presented to the other attendants. If an object of the foregoing type is forcibly embedded into an arbitrary position and displayed on the monitor, a reason why the object is embedded into the position cannot be detected later. Thus, confusion will happen.
An object can be displayed adjacent to a file without use of the embedding function in such a manner that the object does not relate to the file. When the file has been erased or moved, there arises a problem in that the object is not erased or moved corresponding to the file. Another problem arises in that the file to which the displayed object corresponds cannot be detected if a plurality of files are opened.
As described above, use of only the embedding function to make the object relevant to the file is insufficient to easily present objects, such as comments or reference materials, relating to the file serving as a tentative file and displayed on the common monitor having a large size. Thus, the conference cannot smoothly be performed. Also in a case where the attendants add objects, such as memorandums or reference materials, to the file of the reference material displayed on the individual monitors each having a small size, a problem experienced with the common monitor hating the large size arises. As described above, use of the function of embedding an object into a file to make the object relevant to the file is insufficient to efficiently perform an electronic conference. Therefore, an electronic conference aiding system having a new method for making an object relevant to a file has been required.